At his death Dr. Hering was Emeritus Professor of Institutes and Materia Medica in this institution.
Of medium height and athletic build, nature had fashioned Dr. Hering physically as a wrestler in a struggle, which he sustained during his entire life with ardor and dignity. Upon his broad shoulders was carried a grand head with the resolute look of one, who, without, any pride, knows how to appreciate his own value, and without affectation, unless one might call such his beautiful hair, which he always wore long, like the Germans of the olden time. He had the well developed forehead of the observer, heavy eyebrow, shading the dark eyes of his race, and an expression in which played the anxiety of unwearied thought joined to a boundless kindness of heart. His step, noiseless and elastic in spite of his weight, pre-possessed all in his favor: his presence shed abroad an atmosphere of benevolence, and inspired the young with confidence in a superiority which might have crushed them, the sick with courage and all with sympathy, while to those who were fortunate enough to approach sufficiently near to appreciate him, his presence served to fill them with an admiration of the tenderest nature.
Of a happily tenacious memory, he was at home on all subjects, listening with attention to the young whom he was teaching, and of such affability, that giving, he seemed to receive and learn from them.
His faculties of a superior order, formed upon musical harmonies from birth (his father was an organist) and coordinated by the study of mathematics to a form of reasoning, and by classical learning to the very depths of philosophy, had been enriched by the study of natural science, of which he was a perfect master. His clear, precise enunciation; his sweet voice; his just, candid appreciation, where the severe logic of science was mingled with great goodness of heart, all united in showing a feeling of honest and irresistible conviction at the centre of which resounded, like an ever-vibrating echo, these words of Hahnemann: Follow me correctly.
Scientifically speaking, his well-molded hand (soft as velvet) showed a depth of receptie sensibility capable of analysis, and, but its eastern form, the synthetic power well characterized. Humanly speaking it was like his heart, which, deeply affected, sympathized with all in the arduous contest of life, giving both of his support and charity. For it must be said, that slightly negligent of external forms, he seemed to be only the guardian of benefits received, which he scattered round him without any regard for riches; so to him was given the title of Father Hering.
To understand him thoroughly one must remember that he was brought up at a time of great effervescence, which accounts for his communicative enthusiasm. Perfectly balanced, his judgement did not allow his imagination to expend itself in any direction, save in the ardor which he lavished upon his studies; and his moral sense, or feeling of duty, sustained him in his great work, in which he never failed, in spite of the many meannesses of those who were jealous of the great stranger in a country which was not his by an accident of birth, but by adoption, and in spite of the bitterness with which those, who, not being able to reach the man, tried to disparage him and the truths to which he had consecrated his life. To these truths he was faithful to a degree which never lessened, neither when pursed by vexations, nor when struggling against the restraints of the age, for, a few days before his death, he returned thanks for all the good that he had received from Homoeopathy. He planned, even at that time, a new Materia Medica, in which the theory and practice should explain each other, to the great joy of the disciples of the school.
The results of his unheard of work, and of his perseverence, are not only spread through the writings of many periodicals, but are recorded in volumes of extraordinary merit. One is astonished in becoming acquainted with this study, made so deep by comparisons, parallel quotations, by circumstances of time, of position, of direction, and of sides. And the question arises, why so much care, which no one before him had thought of any use, unless the compilation of Boenninghausen should be considered as something more than patient statistics. Dr. Hering brought to this work not only the minute exactitude of the naturalist, and the faithfulness of the homoeopathic believer, but the ardent perseverance of one who studies the laws of a living pathology. He thought that there should be a reason for the preference of certain remedies for this or that part of the body: it is the result of medical affinities, of idiosyncrasies, or the result of medical action and physical reaction? What law does the circulation of the nervous fluid allow? What reason, what course must be assigned for the vital wave? Through the statistic method, to which he was devoted, there came to him the suspicion of a law to be discovered. And do not let us criticize too severely this ambition. The measure of intuition and appreciation, which a mind thus exercised, makes use of, is not ours. The law of doses, and the law for which Hering sought, will both one day be added, like great luminaries, to the discoveries for the good of mankind. Hering, himself, knew that the hour of this revelation, a kind of promised land, had not yet come, and he contented himself to erecting a monument of facts and works, so that others might make use of it later on. Then seeing that the Materia Medica, worked in this way, would be almost too colossal a work, he began another, as fine, but much shorter, which the student might, if he wished it, rework. It is in fact more within our reach. Then, to define still more clearly the lines to be followed, in the practical way, he makes a resume of the whole, under the name of Analytical Therapeutics, the result of long years of observation, either by himself or of others; a work still incomplete, but of inestimable value.
At the time when Dr. Hering appeared upon the scene, our school, but just started, was like a fragile shell upon the waters, ready to be engulfed at the least movement of the waves. Hering came, incomparably eminent, fortified with vast knowledge, an unceasing activity, a boundless kindness, a feeling a duty to be done equal to every struggle. He started every movement for the good of our school, never allowed himself to be discouraged, was present everywhere upon the scene of action, encouraged and directed the students, stimulated the people to work, adding to his daily practice the work of a large correspondence, of medical provings and of a college professorship. To accomplish this he was often on duty twenty-one hours of the twenty-four.
Our school has gained in size, in strength, in consideration; it is no longer a shell, a plaything at the mercy of the waves, but a majestic ship, with its flag floating proudly on all shores, the joy of every land. And if we, the contemporaries of Hering have seen him and known his worth, posterity, on account of the imperishable monument which he has left us as the fruit of his labors, will place him, a worthy competitor, by the side of the Master himself, and bestow upon him the title of great which he has so richly deserved.
When Hahnemann attacked the old school at its foundation, by the denial, both of its fundamental principle and the efficacy of its therapeutic power, he did not content himself with a simple denial. For the denial, which may become the staring-point of an argument or a system, is not one in itself. Alone, and without reconstruction, if something has not been rebuilt upon the ruins of that which has been demolished, it is either the return to an unwholesome barbarism, foreign to our day, or the paltry confession of weakness of mind. Hahnemann, while making clean work of the old school, determined the rules which should govern the choice of a medicine in a case of sickness, reunited by his system the disavowed ties which exist between the maxims of physiology and therapeutics; for the untenable law of opposites, substituted the indisputable law of similars, and by means of provings on the healthy man, initiated us into the complicated study of the psychical and physical man, a close bond, by which, in every disease these double beings are united.
1. Physiological maxim. The parts of a whole are in the same conditions as the whole, the whole in the same conditions as the parts. All local treatment rests upon a disavowal of this maxim.
2. Examples of the law of similars. A frozen limb is cured by the application of snow, or the air of a cold room. Inflammation is reduced by the application of warm water. Purgatives are employed in cases of diarrhoea and dysentery. Vomiting is stopped by drinking of warm water or by an emetic of mustard, and lastly vaccine, which is not in any respect like smallpox is used, indeed legally enforced by the old school. 3. This law is deduced from the observation of facts; it is a general one, in so far as no cure is effected without its application.
In 1878 and 1879 he published 2 editions of his book, Sunstroke and Its Homeopathic Treatment.
Upon Hering's death in 1880 Knerr became responsible for the completion of the 10-volume Guiding Symptoms.
Dr. Knerr wrote 2-volume Repertory to the Guiding Symptoms,